Sam Should Stop The Excuses and Sob Stories

Written by Dr. Ed Harrison

1:21pm Thursday, January 3rd, 2008

Commented 48 times

Sam Allardyce has talked about the game last night and the fact that the Newcastle players are probably at their lowest ebb of the season. We hope this is rock bottom as Sam says, because we donâ€™t want to go any lower than this. But what Sam talks about this morning, are nothing but excuses and sob stories.

Sam Allardyce – it’s all woulda coulda shouldathis morning

Sam told the Newcastle Evening Chronicle today:

â€œThe players are very dejected and disappointed. It has been a massive effort, with so many games in such a short period of time.â€ â€œNow it is three defeats on the trot and, in terms of confidence, that is hugely draining.â€

â€œWe have to take it on the chin, and take the positive points out of the game.â€ â€œHowever, we cannot keep shooting ourselves in the foot by playing so well and not gaining results to go along with it.â€

â€œIt was a very disappointing result at home, having played so well in the first half and not taken advantage of the chances we created.â€

It was very even in the first half, and Newcastle certainly had the better chances but looked inept when those chances presented themselves. On another day we could have easily gone two up, but we didnâ€™t, and thatâ€™s why we are now in such terrible trouble. The Newcastle players get paid huge amounts of money to play the game, so weâ€™re not going to feel too sorry for them. They will need to get themselves together for Saturdayâ€™s game, and start to earn their wages â€“ like our tremendous fans do every single day.

Sam went on:

â€œIt was typical of the Premier League â€“ it will kill you under those circumstances. It killed us just before half-time with the Elano goal.â€

â€œIn the first 10 games of the season we scored first in seven of them, and you saw how many points that brought us.â€ â€œPeople might say it sounds like we are making excuses, but we are not â€“ have a look at them.â€

â€œWe feel the challenge from Elano on Abdoulaye Faye was a straight red.â€ â€œIt was a horrendous tackle, but not dealt with. People talk about two-footed tackles, but this was 10 times worse than that.â€

â€œDamien Duff was through one-on-one and was held by the full-back. The linesman gave offside, but when you look at the replay, it is onside.â€ â€œRichard Dunne upended Steven Taylor towards the end from an Emre free-kick â€“ a penalty at that stage would have given us an opportunity.â€

But what Sam is talking about is all what we would call woulda, coulda, shoulda. If only the referee had flagged for their 5 offside goals and had given us that penalty we deserved, we would have won 1-0 and not been beaten 5-0. Just trying to make a point here. If the King was a girl he’d be Queen. It just doesnâ€™t mean anything that’s very real. These things happen in every game, and thatâ€™s part of the game and you need to win whatever goes against you, because it happens to all teams.

Sam went on:

â€œYou never know, but even that one was not given.â€ â€œThe tackle from Elano was a straight red,â€ â€œHe got away with it. Weâ€™re talking about stamping out two-footed tackles. That was worse. There was no attempt to get the ball whatsoever.â€

â€œHe went over the ball. Heâ€™s not a tackler. He just went to do him. It was a defining point in the game. It might sound like excuses to some people. But poor decisions cost us.â€

It just about says it all when we talk about things like this in last nightâ€™s game. Like Brazilian Elano should have been sent off. If we had played better, then maybe we could have talked about that this morning. You cannot control how the other team plays or what the referee is going to do.

But you can control the way your own team plays and thatâ€™s what we have to now concentrate on Saturday. What we can do for ourselves on Saturday, that’s all that really matters right now. Ensure that somehow, the lads donâ€™t fall to a 4th defeat in a row.

48 comments so far

calm down everyone. all its gonna take is one good match to get the confidence back and that will be against stoke. and moreover sam is actually playin 442 and we surely look threatning playin that formation. so good positives ahead.

i’d like sam to get til the end of the season, then if it isn’t good enough by then, he should be booted and Ottomar Hitzfeld should be approached as he’s just announched he’s leavin bayern at the end of the season

basically im supporting what dave kitson said, i dont particularly care about what happens because if we win, good we get to the next round, if we lose we can concentrate on the prem and sam gets the sack, good news, either way we arent going to win the FA cup.

I took a lot of positives out of that game. As Indian Toon points out we finally played a 442 and looked dangerous. Yes Zogs played LB but he might be the best LB in the country so why not. I thought Sam did well takin off Duff (crap) but dropped the ball when he took Faye off (our best player) I think we could have grabbed something if he had played Emre and Faye together. Come on guys lets stick with the team and the manager before the media ruin our entire season, I couldnt have been more annoyed with the completely biased an unprofessional commenting on Fox Sports yesterday lets keep it United.

Calm down, guys – admittedly our finishing was poor, but the City defence has to take some credit. Take the up-side, which is that (against all expectations) BSA has shown that he is open to the idea of an attacking 4-4-2.

Stoke will be 3-0, so will Man-U (but alas the other way around) and we’ll finish the season lower-mid-table with BSA still in charge. But we’ll have a low injury rate, a good academy, effective scouting network, a far deeper and longer-term squad and (most notably) a healthy bank balance. Not bad for one season.

and I’ve said before BSA shut up fgs and get on with ur job. Imagine if he was talking to BBC too we’d never have a moments peace from the utter tripe (or state the bleeding obvious) he spouts to the media.

Tom_Toon i have to say if i was asked what id rather have win against Stoke and have Allardyce still in charge and finish 16th or get beat and get shot of Allardyce? Id take the defeat also!We would be better with no manager at present, at least the players know where they should be playing!

i think some people fail to realise what a bad mess we were in at the end of last season and not just on the pitch. we werent like man city or villa where we had a good academy and players were a lot of the time unfit under roeder and we didnt spend that much this season compared to most premier teams

Stoke will definitely beat us. I thought that before the City game and am convinced now. They are one of the best teams outside the Premiership at the moment. I’m sure Stoke fans are already waiting to see who they will play in the next round

confidence absolutly will not be regained should we beat Stoke. no offence to them, but should we nick a 1-0 over stoke, i will not be sitting rubbing my hands claiming “right, bring on manure!” and to be deadly honest, they will be unbeleivably confident going into this game looking at our current form and confusion at the club. Full of the one thing we lack more than anything else. dont be surprised if we’re on here come sunday night lost for words, i know i wont be.

Is it me or is anyone else annoyed at seeing Sam sitting in the stands at the start of every game. That works fine when the team is organised and doing well. But when it’s all over the shop like it is now, he should be down in the trenches from the first whistle. Not coming down in the second half when things have gone wrong.

What many have not picked up on is Sam “losing his mojo”. Not only is he on a run of poor results this term, I belive that the second half of the season in his last at Bolton was very poor.

It would be interesting to find out what his managerial record (W-D-L) has been for the last 12 months. It could be claimed he was disintersted and unmotivated towards the end of his time at Bolton. However he hasn’t covered himself in glory, this term with us.

Sam if you want to keep your job – forget the excuses – go get your mojo back !!!

i think sam was pretty honest for a change , he admited for the first time we should be beating the likes of derby and wigan , admited we have tough games comming up , and admitted we shouldnt be losing at SJP . bit of honesty for a change go’s a long way .

So many people willing to stick the boot in whenever they can. Do I hear bring back Keegan? I’m surprised this little gem hasn’t been said yet. As most proper supporters are aware what NUFC needed was a change of owner and a change of chairman to get this club back on it’s feet. We’ve got that. Unfortunately it came after our new manager was appointed. Personally I wanted Houlier to join us, but there you go. What fans of nufc have to realise is that we aren’t the big draw most of you think we are. Who in their right mind would join us right now? Nobody. That’s who. Sir Alex said that the Newcastle job was in danger of becoming a poisoned chalice and you know what? He’s right. If we were to sack a well respected manager like BSA before he’s even had a year in the job we would become a laughing stock. Look at ManU. Did Sir Alex get it right in a year? No. Don’t give me any crap about Man City either. There is always one team that is there biting at the heels of the top four, this year it’s City’s turn. Some of the so called fans need to be patient and realise that we were in a really big mess that started with the Keegan and Hall quick fix, patch over the holes mentality that give us some very short term happiness. We have to be thinking more than just this season, start thinking long term. We won’t be relegated, it’s just typical Geordie extremes. We are either the best team in the world and are going to win everything in site or the worst team in the world who even Gateshead could beat. Some perspective is needed. We are bulding for the long term, we will benefit from this and it will be Sunderland, Derby and Fulham playing QPR, etc.. next season and not us.

micky toon , ive been saying bring back keegan since august . you can have a go at me for that if u will . fact remains , kevin has been in and around the toon alot this season , gave interview on us which he never normally does , and if early reports were right was offerd a sporting directors role at the club , but didnt take it so he wasnt undermining sam . im 100% confident that if asked keegan would come out of retirement and finish the job he started with us . and id welcome him back with open arms , ps stick big al alongside him to .

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health update

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in February 2017 and completed four months of chemotherapy in late July and will continue to have hormone treatment.

The cancer spread in the bones, but after having a number of CATscans last Friday the cancer has been stabilized and as of April 24th, 2018 it has not spread further.

There is no cure for Stage 4 cancer so I will continue to have CATscans and bone scans about every four months to check on the cancer.

It is as it is - I will do my best under the circumstances - it's another challenge.

Ed Harrison

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